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FIM Indoor Trial World Championship Series Round 10: Nikaia Arena Nice, liood Montesa rider Marc Freixa eamed his tlrst Indoor Wort Championship win of the year at the Nice Trial. The victory put the screws to Freixa's teammate Doug Lampkin, with the Montesa team deserving a measure of credit for not ordering Freixa to tank during the final loop. gap between himself and Raga to 11. Taking into account that six riders will contest the next event, the difference in terms of points between the winner and sixth is 10. For Raga, it will be sufficient to finish the qualification loop to clinch his first World Indoor title. It should be noted that the Montesa team elected not to halt Freixa's run in favor of aiding Lampkin. That fact became evident when the two teammates squared off in the parallel section, which is disputed between the first- and second-placed riders from the final loop. The two pilots called to battle it out were Freixa, author of five penalties, and Lampkin, who was guilty of seven penalties. It would have been easy for Montesa to order Freixa to dab twice in the parallel in order to slip to second place, thus giving Lampkin a slightly better shot at the title in the last round. But this did not happen: the parallel was won by Lampkin, obviously, with Freixa just careful in cleaning the section, so the point more he took for having been beaten did not change the outcome. STORY AND PHOTOS BY MARIO CANDELLONE NICE, FRANCE, MAR. 7 ith only one round left, the 2003 World Indoor crown is virtually on the head of young Spaniard Adam Raga, the Gas Gas rider having finished in third place at the Nikaia arena of Nice, Cote d'Azur, South of France. Indeed, thanks to his advantage of 11 points, he will have only to finish the next and last round scheduled at Madrid on the 21st of this month. Raga's success has been built on six wins, five of them consecutive in the decisive phase of this championship. His number-one rival was not the former champion Albert Cabestany, often out of the hunt in this season, but the outdoor king Doug Lampkin. This evening, Lampkin finished runner-up, just behind his teammate Freixa, who was able to top the podium for the time since making the move to the Montesa team. Lampkin gained only two points in the overall standings, reducing the W 58 MARCH 26, 2003· cue I e n _ vv s As the rules state, in the qualification loop each rider must ride the six sections consecutively, with a time limit of nine minutes. First to face the hazards was Frenchman Bruno Camozzi, followed by Japanese Fumitaka Nozaki on the Scorpa. The two were "wild cards" already invited by organizers of other rounds, like Marseille or Wien, but not a regular part of the championship. It showed. The gap from their rides and those of the others was noticeable: 23 and 26 respectively, against the 10 of Cabestany, who posted the worst score among the other six riders with a fixed place in this particular championship. Freixa tallied only one point up to section six; he then failed that section, adding another five marks. But his total of six points was easily good enough to gain access to the final. Graham Jarvis came next: he lost some points in the first five sections but climbed the waterfall, showing that it is feasible. His total score was seven. Takahisa Fujinami followed in the footprints of Freixa, losing one point in the first five sections and then fiving the waterfall. Then came Raga, who dabbed just three times and then picked up an GUALIFICATION LOOP In the six sections, once again laid by expert Bernard Estripeau, eight riders - the maximum admitted - challenged for this edition of the Nice Trial. Look at the hazards: section one was on big cement cubes placed in irregular order. Section two was very picturesque: a kind of garden of gigantic mushrooms, some wide, some narrow, placed to force the rider to jump from one to another in narrow spaces. Section three was on broken columns, like ancient Greek ruins. Section four was made by big wood planks tied together. Section five was on natural rocks placed on a semitrailer. Section six was the well-known waterfall, this time much longer, thanks to the great space in the arena. Lookin' good: With his third-place finish at Nice, all Adam Raga needs to do now is complete the qualification loop at the final round in Madrid to eam the World Indoor crown. BRIEFLY. •• More than 5000 spectators populated the Nikaia arena, making organizers happy. The main man behind the event was Mr. Bruno Albero. the chairman of the" Club de la Gode." famous for having organized other important World rounds in the past. Italian Loris Caplro••1 (this year competing in MotoGP on Ducatil was invited to watch the competition and was also called to climb the podium at the presentation.